DIUx

Ash Carter at the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, Moffett Field, 11 May 2016
DIUx

DIUx or Defense Innovation Unit Experimental is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) organization focused on accelerating technological innovation to the DoD and U.S. military service members. A first-of-its-kind unit for DoD, DIUx is staffed by civilian, active duty, reserve, and contractor personnel. DIUx has offices in Silicon Valley and Boston, and a presence in Austin.

The DIUx initiative started in August 2015 with an office opening at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, California. In May 2016 Ash Carter announced he would be opening another office in the Boston Area.

DIUx uses a partnership-style, flat leadership structure that includes technologists, investors and business executives.[1] Raj Shah, Air Force reservist and co-founder of cybersecurity company Morta Security, is managing partner of DIUx. Other partners include Isaac Taylor, former head of operations at Google X, Vishaal Hariprasad, Air Force reservist and co-founder of Morta Security, and Chris Kirchhoff, former Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council.

“I’ve personally experienced how difficult it can be for a startup, who wants to make a contribution to our national security, but simply can’t afford to do business on the timelines that it takes to work with the Pentagon,” Shah said.[2]

A New Way to Contract

Leveraging Other Transaction Authorities granted by Congress, DIUx established the new Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), a contracting mechanism that enables DIUx to do business with companies that traditionally don’t do business with DoD. The CSO mirrors the commercial contracting practices these companies normally use, enabling DIUx to work with companies to design projects together, and negotiate payment milestones, terms and conditions, and intellectual property rights within 60 days.

[ As of September, 2016,] DIUx has already sourced commercial solutions to some of the military’s most challenging needs. DIUx has signed five agreements for $3.5M—its first in 31 days—with an average time of just 52 days from initial company contact to award. Another 22 projects are in the pipeline, totaling an estimated $65M in investment. Because DIUx operates on a co-investment model in which it pools funds with the end-customers it works with, DIUx’s $17 million of spend has been augmented by $48 million of additional funding by others within DoD.

Matching Technology to Warfighter Needs

DIUx solicits solutions from industry to warfighter challenges it is trying to solve by releasing Technology Areas of Interest on their website. Companies submit short solution briefs, DIUx performs a down-selection process, and then the chosen companies are invited to pitch. Once a company's solution is selected, DIUx helps the company through the proposal process.[3]

Criticism

Many in the defense community have argued that these functions are already being well served by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has an expansive mission that already covers the niche area envisioned for DIUx. As a result of this controversy, the House Armed Services Committee has proposed to zero out the $30 million requested by DOD for DIUx in the president's budget plan for fiscal year 2017.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Remarks Announcing DIUx 2.0".
  2. ↑ "DIUx Gets Leadership Overhaul".
  3. ↑ "DIUx Work with Us".
  4. ↑ "Obama threatens veto of defense bill over tech outpost funding". FedScoop. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
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